1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for accounting an item sold by weight executed in a system which accounts an item sold by weight taken out from a selling space into a package by a purchaser or a shop assistant and a system for accounting an item sold by weight that executes the method for accounting an item sold by weight.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a supermarket or the like sells foods, it may sell a food piece by piece or may sell a food in purchaser's desired quantity such as selling a prepared food by weight.
When a shop sells foods piece by piece, the accounting of the foods is relatively simple. As the shop fixes a unit price for a food and only needs to count the number of the food to sell in order to sell the food piece by piece, it can make accounts square for the food in a relatively simple manner.
When a purchaser buys an item such as a food at a supermarket or the like, the purchaser may buy many kinds of items at a time. In such a case, even if the supermarket sells an item piece by piece, it takes long to make accounts square for such many kinds of items.
In view of such circumstances, an invention is disclosed that can make accounts square for the item in a short time when many kinds of items are purchased at a time by attaching an electronic tag that records a sales price on each of the items and providing a shopping cart for carrying items with a client apparatus with a function of obtaining a sales price for each of the items taken in the shopping cart by reading the electronic tag on each of the items and summing up and displaying the total (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-259947).
Another invention is disclosed that can automatically make accounts square for the items when a user selects items and carries them on a tray to the accounting place for paying for the items on the tray, by attaching an IC tag on the tray and writing price information on the items in the IC tag each time the user takes items from a showcase (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-021412).
The invention described in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-021412 is adapted to provide a weight sensor at a place for receiving items where a user places a tray, calculate price information according to an increase of the weight measured by the weight sensor and write the price information in the IC tag when the items are sold by weight.
If a shop sells foods by weight such as to sell prepared foods by weight, it is quite troublesome for the shop to make accounts square.
That is to say, when a shop sells foods by weight, it lets a purchaser take a desired quantity of the foods into a package, measures the quantity of the foods at the cash register, and makes accounts square for the foods. Therefore, it is quite troublesome for the shop to make accounts square.
When a shop sells foods by weight, a purchaser can put only a kind of foods sold by weight in a package as a sales price differs for each kind. When a purchaser wants to buy many kinds of foods sold by weight, the purchaser has to do that process for the number of the kinds of foods bought by the purchaser. Therefore, it is quite troublesome for a purchaser to get the foods made accounts square.
As mentioned above, when a shop sells foods by weight, it lets a purchaser take a desired quantity of the foods in a package, measures the quantity of the foods at the cash register, and makes accounts square for the foods. Therefore, it is quite troublesome for the shop to make accounts square.
When a shop sells foods by weight, a purchaser can put only a kind of foods sold by weight in a package as a sales price differs for each kind. When a purchaser wants to buy many kinds of foods sold by weight, the purchaser has to do that process for the number of the kinds of foods bought by the purchaser. Therefore, it is quite troublesome for a purchaser to get the foods made accounts square.
When a shop sells foods by weight, a purchaser can put only a kind of foods sold by weight in a package as a sales price differs for each kind. That causes a problem of consuming many package recourses.
The invention described in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-021412 is adapted to provide a weight sensor at a place for receiving items where a user places a tray, calculate price information based on an increase of the weight measured by the weight sensor and write the price information in the IC tag when the items selected by a user are sold by weight.
It is assumed that the invention described in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-021412 is applied to a sales method for a cafeteria system restaurant and not to a general sales method for a supermarket or the like. The invention does not consider a possibility that a purchaser may perform an unjust purchase when it sells foods by weight. The invention is only adapted to calculate price information based on the weight of the selected items sold by weight and write the price information in the IC tag when the items selected by a purchaser are sold by weight.
Therefore, even the invention described in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-021412 cannot realize a practical automatic accounting system for the items sold by weight at a general shop such as a supermarket (the items such as foods sold by weight).